“This is it”, whispered all the online blogs, the upcoming talks, and the updated versions of C++11 books. C++14 has arrived! This meeting is historic not just because we completed the practical work on C++14 but because C++ Standard is now consistently shipping a product almost at every meeting. This is the result of the bus-train model where various groups and subgroups always have either a Technical Specification or a Standard to deliver. Expect this from now on from the C++ Standard Committee. The benefit is that a predictable... [More]

In Part 1 of this C++ Standard September, 2013 meeting trip report, I wanted to mostly go over the core, library issues that affects C++14 and are urgent for the new Standard to emerge. What some people forget is that while this drive for C++14 is happening, there are still some parts of the Committee working on large and small features beyond C++14. This part will describe the many future feature proposals. Many of these proposals may only get full air time during the plenary session and these plenary sessions are getting longer and... [More]

In part 1 of this trip report, I spoke about the general mood of the April C++ Std meeting in Bristol and the plan to release C++14 Committee Draft (CD) after the meeting. I also deep dived into the language feature set for C++14. Now I will deep dive onto the library feature additions for C++14. As with the language features, some of these originated from other subgroups. As before, I will not talk about minor bug fixes, but also talk about proposals that did not pass as they are often the most controversial. N3545 is an incremental... [More]

Bristol is a terrific place. It is where much of the history of steam and iron occurred to change the world, although at the time people probably did not realize it. Isambard Kingdom Brunel had in the 19 th century, revolutionized the way we travel, by bringing together steam engine to replace the paddlewheel along with iron to create an ocean going vessel that lasted far longer than any vessel at the time, the SS Great Britain. Just as it had a great many detractors who said it couldn’t be done, many people said a new Standard could not... [More]

Many people probably don't know this, but I got this authoritative statement from the Father of C++, Bjarne Stroustrup himself just before the Oct 15-19, Portland C++ Standard meeting. We tried to get together for a drink on that Sunday night to celebrate the C++ Birthday, but some of us could not arrive in time. We did have a drink the next night for a somehat different reason. Its a reason that will become apparent in a few days .. So Happy belated Birthday, C++! Believe it or not C++ is technically 27 years old, depending on how you count... [More]

No new Standard before 2017. That is the word from the C++ Standard meeting in Feb 2012, the first meeting since the ratification of C++11 after the Indiana meeting in August 2011. It must be the location, because it had over 60 attendees. We seem to have one of these every five years courtesy of PlumHall, although this one was paid for by Bloomberg. Thank you, John and Tom. The first and last thing on everyone's mind was when will the next Standard be? Will it be another 10 years? As this meeting included the reopening of the Evolution... [More]

C++ 11 is official and published! It is now possible to purchase the new C++ 11 Standard from the INCITS/ANSI website: http://webstore.ansi.org/ RecordDetail.aspx?sku=ISO% 2FIEC+14882%3A2011 or direct from the ISO website: http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/catalogue_tc/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=50372 You can still get C++03: http://webstore.ansi.org/ RecordDetail.aspx?sku=INCITS/ ISO/IEC%2014882-2003 If you find the price a bit high, it is also possible to wait a bit until the British Standard Institute publish a hard-copy book... [More]

This Standard meeting is earlier then the usual C++ Standard meeting to accommodate the period of time after the approval of the C++0x draft when National Body balloting has to be done to approve the draft and ratify it. The new C++0x Standard has been ratified and will be called C++11. As an additional note, the C standard is also undergoing ratification vote and will also likely be approved. So there is now a quiet period when we cannot issue new papers. As it happens, the defect reports for core language and library are also issued as... [More]

The star is born. Recall that in this C++0x Mardid Standard meeting blog posting , I mentioned that the C++ Standard has been approved at the Madrid Standard meeting to be shipped. What
we were waiting for were final integration of Standard text,
proof-reading, ballot by all the National Bodies and then some ISO
bureaucratic process to release the document. These
last few steps have been done. In fact two weeks ago, on Aug 8, I voted
to approve the Standard for the Canadian National Body. It seems other
National Bodies also... [More]

We have a new star in the heaven. This is the dawning of a new C++ Standard today, March 25, 2011. The C++ Standard Committee in Madrid has approved the shipping of the C++0x Standard after nearly 12 years of work! The x in C++0x is now potentially to be a 'b' in hexadecimal. There are still possible stops in this process, but most of what remains will likely be procedural rather then technical. What remains is final integration of all approved changes from this meeting, proof-reading, then a ballot by all the National Body on the resulting... [More]

The C++ Standard meeting this week in Madrid will try to ship the Final Draft International Standard. This will become the next C++ Standard and replace the 2003 (or 1998) C++ Standard with about 140 features (spread between language and library), and 600 defect fixes to the core language. Make no mistake, this could be a historic week, perhaps not with the same impact as IBM's Watson beating human Champions on Jeopardy, but still worth mentioning for one of the top major general purpose language which has not been changed for the past 11... [More]

In this meeting, Bjarne Stroustrup opined that "The Atomics have become unstable at Fermilab".. Of course, Fermilab is a wonderful place, where one of the first sub-atomic particle, the top-quark was discovered. The architecture of this facility stands out uniquely with pi-shaped main building, telephone poles, and Archimedean spiral pumping stations. Much of the facility is opened to public visit. The main mission of the Lab is one of keen interest to our future and that is the search for Dark matter, Dark Energy which of course can... [More]

At the Rapperswil C++ Standard meeting, we are here to answer the National Body comments from our recently issued Final Committee Draft. There were a large number of comments, not a great deal more then the number of comments from the last CD in 2009. Almost all the National Bodies supported the FCD which is document n3102.pdf when it is released, most with comments. One NB voted no with comment, on the believe this will motivate fixing the comment in the manner that they approve, and then voting yes with or without comments in subsequent... [More]

As of March 26, a Final Committee Draft (FCD) has been sent to the ISO office. This contains all the updates from the last meeting in March, and addresses all the issues from the comments from CD1 from 2008. This will now be released for public comment until July 26, 2010 at which point we will spend the next 2-3 meetings addressing those comments. Comments to address defects are allowed at this stage, but not comments asking for new features. This is a key stage in the C++0x Standard evolution to a final ratified Standard. If this stays on... [More]

All, an unprecedented meeting indeed. At this meeting in Pittsburgh, on March 13, 2010, we voted to dispatch a Final Committee Draft (FCD) according to this motion: Motion 1 Move we request the Convener to advance the Working Paper as amended by the foregoing motions to Final Committee Draft (FCD) Status, forward that draft to SC22 for FCD Ballot, and appoint a review committee consisting of Steve Adamczyk and Howard Hinnant to approve the Project Editor's updates to the Working Paper. What this means is that this is the accumulated integrated... [More]